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Powerchip experience

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Old 07-02-2011, 09:04 PM
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2009 C63, 2000 Nissan Maxima
Powerchip experience

hello all,
As i had headers put on my car a couple weeks back, I took advantage of PCs great deal they had ($500 for a tune) going on at the time. Unfortunately it didnt work out. This is my (long-winded) experience. No *****ing, no real complaining, just my experience.

I'll start by saying Paul and Matt were both really good guys and (for the most part) completely professional.

I had the tune completed the same day as the headers in mid-June and the increase in power was very noticeable right away, though much more in the upper power bands. I know there was a thread recently
( https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...powerchip.html )
mentioning power that didnt feel like it was there. I could definitely feel the power, 3k and above mostly.

Now a little disclaimer: I dont drive my car THAT hard. I rarely get above 100mph and i dont race from light to light. I hardly find space to get my RPMs to redline but i do from time to time. That being said, if i felt like doing it, i should be able to.

On my way home the same night as install/tune, i was on the freeway in S / Manual mode, slowed to about 60 in 3rd and hit it, maybe 80-90% throttle. Power felt amazing. All the way to redline and shift to 4th.

4th felt great until about 5.5k when the car prematurely shifted on its on. I backed off the throttle and slowed again. Thinking that was kind of weird i dropped to 3rd again and punched it again. Once again 3rd to redline without a glitch and into 4th, a premature shift at 5.5k. However, this time i pushed through and as i got into the higher ranges of 5th, i received the dreaded

"[ESP] currently inoperable. see operator's manual"

( as seen here: https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...what-hell.html )

knowing that this had happened i pulled over quickly, it was late 9pm maybe?
turned the car off and back on. no problems

slightly shaken, i got home and did further research on MBW

called PC the next morning and didnt get much help from Matt. This was the only part of the process i felt shortchanged. When I called he told me he had never heard of the issue (which i didnt believe given the numerous previous accounts) and that i can either let the car adapt (which i understood) or get a refund.
He also told me that when driven hard cars shut down sometimes. Told him I understood that but i had driven hard for less than 2 minutes.

I had a couple days to test out the car again before taking her back to PC, so in my testing, although i did not get the "ESP inoperable" screen, i continuously had the pre-mature shift in 4th gear at ~5.5k
i decided to go back to stock and see what happen

Both Paul and Matt were completely professional when i went to PC asking for a refund, just wanting me to get my car running properly again - so that was cool

as soon as i was back to stock (i have primary cats so no CEL) i tested the 4th gear premature shift and it was gone.

talked to PC and concluded their tune was not for me.

am still waiting to see what tune to go with next and hopefully it was just a PC tune issue

thanks for reading!
Old 07-02-2011, 10:36 PM
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'11 C63, '22 GLS 63, Porsches, M3, M4
Originally Posted by Unbreakable1
hello all,
As i had headers put on my car a couple weeks back, I took advantage of PCs great deal they had ($500 for a tune) going on at the time. Unfortunately it didnt work out. This is my (long-winded) experience. No *****ing, no real complaining, just my experience.

I'll start by saying Paul and Matt were both really good guys and (for the most part) completely professional.

I had the tune completed the same day as the headers in mid-June and the increase in power was very noticeable right away, though much more in the upper power bands. I know there was a thread recently
( https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...powerchip.html )
mentioning power that didnt feel like it was there. I could definitely feel the power, 3k and above mostly.

Now a little disclaimer: I dont drive my car THAT hard. I rarely get above 100mph and i dont race from light to light. I hardly find space to get my RPMs to redline but i do from time to time. That being said, if i felt like doing it, i should be able to.

On my way home the same night as install/tune, i was on the freeway in S / Manual mode, slowed to about 60 in 3rd and hit it, maybe 80-90% throttle. Power felt amazing. All the way to redline and shift to 4th.

4th felt great until about 5.5k when the car prematurely shifted on its on. I backed off the throttle and slowed again. Thinking that was kind of weird i dropped to 3rd again and punched it again. Once again 3rd to redline without a glitch and into 4th, a premature shift at 5.5k. However, this time i pushed through and as i got into the higher ranges of 5th, i received the dreaded

"[ESP] currently inoperable. see operator's manual"

( as seen here: https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...what-hell.html )

knowing that this had happened i pulled over quickly, it was late 9pm maybe?
turned the car off and back on. no problems

slightly shaken, i got home and did further research on MBW

called PC the next morning and didnt get much help from Matt. This was the only part of the process i felt shortchanged. When I called he told me he had never heard of the issue (which i didnt believe given the numerous previous accounts) and that i can either let the car adapt (which i understood) or get a refund.
He also told me that when driven hard cars shut down sometimes. Told him I understood that but i had driven hard for less than 2 minutes.

I had a couple days to test out the car again before taking her back to PC, so in my testing, although i did not get the "ESP inoperable" screen, i continuously had the pre-mature shift in 4th gear at ~5.5k
i decided to go back to stock and see what happen

Both Paul and Matt were completely professional when i went to PC asking for a refund, just wanting me to get my car running properly again - so that was cool

as soon as i was back to stock (i have primary cats so no CEL) i tested the 4th gear premature shift and it was gone.

talked to PC and concluded their tune was not for me.

am still waiting to see what tune to go with next and hopefully it was just a PC tune issue

thanks for reading!
This type of "tuning" isn't an area I have experience in (yet), but this story makes me think that reprogramming the ECU is a complicated and tricky business, and it's probably easy to cause adverse effects (some of which may not be immediately or readily evident) if not done with a thorough understanding of the car.

If a company was focused exclusively on tuning AMGs and had a track record of success, I would have more confidence in their work. And I would have the most confidence in tuning done by AMG themselves, since they know the car better than anyone, and have more money to invest in the process.
Old 07-02-2011, 10:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Unbreakable1
Called PC the next morning and didn't get much help from Matt.
Thanks for your honest feedback.
Old 07-02-2011, 11:50 PM
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It is very obvious to me that the tune seems to be the roots of the premature shifting. On a positive side, I really like to see a vendor refunding the money with no questions asked.
Old 07-02-2011, 11:52 PM
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Originally Posted by IAA-C63
This type of "tuning" isn't an area I have experience in (yet), but this story makes me think that reprogramming the ECU is a complicated and tricky business, and it's probably easy to cause adverse effects (some of which may not be immediately or readily evident) if not done with a thorough understanding of the car.

If a company was focused exclusively on tuning AMGs and had a track record of success, I would have more confidence in their work. And I would have the most confidence in tuning done by AMG themselves, since they know the car better than anyone, and have more money to invest in the process.
I guess that you nailed it. A vendor builds trust and confidence when the results are track and dyno proven..
Old 07-03-2011, 02:42 AM
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no wonder its for $500. Hoenestly I dont see thier tune as being competetive and rough enough compared with other tuners
Old 07-03-2011, 07:21 AM
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I have the same problem with mhp tune v3 and I have send my ecu to Jerry at eurocharged he told me that he can fix so I did send it and the ecu it is on it way back to me I will try it and inform you if the problem is gone

Abdullah ,,
Old 07-03-2011, 07:57 AM
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Not sure if this is related, but Jerry told me that on some c350's the tune would cause a car to power off above speeds of 85 mph. He asked if I had some update done to my car from mb prior to tune to fix it. I never experienced the problem thankfully. Perhaps Jerry could chime in to elaborate.

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